和谐奉献

长期的音乐教授和手铃总监, 草聊聊, and wife 桥lan (桥) have been integral parts of the 肯考迪娅 community for more than three decades, beginning when a young Herb came west in 1988 to join the 音乐 faculty. 桥, 香港人, 第二年就被大学录取了, 他们发现了彼此, were married in 1994 and spent many years serving on 肯考迪娅’s campus as a faculty member (Herb) and library staff member (桥) until their recent retirements.

现在, the Geislers have honored the institution that brought them together by making 肯考迪娅 part of their living trust.

“It’s been really exciting for me to see how the university has been flourishing,赫伯说. “The things they’ve done and the sense of culture they’ve built are amazing. I walk on campus, and it’s great to see students really engaged in what they’re doing.”

上世纪80年代在香港担任教师期间, 桥 learned of Christ College while visiting near Irvine for a friend’s wedding. Though not intending to move permanently to the United States, 她确实希望花时间在海外学习.

“I thought Christ College [now 欧文康考迪亚大学] be a good fit for me,” she says. “I wanted to improve my English to be a more effective teacher.”

Her goal was to return to Hong Kong to continue teaching after earning her bachelor’s degree in behavioral science, 但取而代之的是爱情. 桥 remembers meeting Herb for the first time — and how he began speaking to her in Cantonese, 她的母语.

“That meant a lot to me, because when I arrived, I hadn’t yet seen any Asian faces,” she says. “All of a sudden, this person I didn’t expect to talked to me in Cantonese. 生命中的某些时刻你会永远记住. 那是其中的一个时刻.”

赫伯——在曼哈顿出生和长大, 布朗克斯, and Queens by Lutheran school teachers — had come to Irvine via 肯考迪娅 Chicago, 他的本科母校, 和密歇根州, 他在安娜堡协和学院教书的地方吗. He also spent four years in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong teaching religion, 音乐, and English as part of a baccalaureate internship at a 肯考迪娅 Lutheran Middle School t在这里. That’s when he taught himself Cantonese, which came in handy when he met 桥. 但这两个人可能从未有过交集, since California was not on Herb’s list of career destinations. “我对加州一点兴趣都没有，”他说. “我是纽约人.”

但, receiving a position announcement at CCI from his academic dean at Ann Arbor to respond to a position announcement from Christ College Irvine, Geisler interviewed and found himself on the phone with then- president Ray Halm receiving an offer to become a professor in the 音乐 department.

“I was shocked because I had no intention of taking that interview process seriously,” he remembers. “我想，如果这是上帝的旨意，他会让我去那里的.”

So it was that Geisler moved west and began teaching and took on another important task for which he had been equipped during his time in Michigan: creating a teacher education program. 四年内, 盖斯勒在其中扮演着关键角色, 肯考迪娅’s newly-launched 音乐 major became a significant part of its teacher education program.

大约在同一时间，1994年，赫伯和乔结婚了.

“我是一个非常有计划的人，”乔说. I know when I want to do what, and my plan was to go back to Hong Kong to teach. 但是上帝有不同的计划.”

Herb continued directing the 肯考迪娅 chapel choir and handbell groups and teaching 音乐 classes, 除了建立音乐教育计划.

“我喜欢我所做的一切，”他说. 特别是手铃, “我们有很棒的旅行和表演经历, and during my time t在这里 we grew from 18 ringers up to 60 ringers.”

That growth occasioned the hiring of 音乐 professor Nancy Jessup to help handle the workload. 当赫伯在2017年退休时, his final project was directing Concert Handbells at the National Seminar of Handbell Musicians of America. He left a legacy at 肯考迪娅 of a well-established 音乐 program and the raising up of gifted student 音乐ians and composers such as Alex ’10 and Christian ’10 Guebert.

桥 earned her California teaching credential at 肯考迪娅 in 1999 while working in the Irvine Unified School District in various capacities for 10 years including library media teacher. 她于2007年加入康科迪亚图书馆, 2019年退休，担任图书馆办公室经理, 处理图书馆的预算和采购. 为了个人成长，她于2016年获得了MBA学位.

“That was a very interesting and worthwhile experience,” she says of being in the classroom. “我在博彩平台网址大全接受了很好的教育. 我有非常好的教授. 我觉得他们真的很关心我，而且他们在学术上很强.” 

在退休, the couple wanted to establish a trust so that one day the resources God had given them would support ministries and institutions important to them.

“我自己就是一名教师, 支持教育始终是重中之重, 除了教堂,乔说。. “上帝赐予我们的一切让我感到无比幸福. 我们想成为好管家.”

赫伯说，虽然他们都不是来自物质财富, both were diligent managers of their resources — and godly stewardship always included giving.

“我理所当然地认为这是我们工作的一部分,赫伯说, speaking of his parents’ example of generosity while he was growing up.

After searching for several years to find an estate attorney who understood their goals, the Geislers found a very helpful partner in 肯考迪娅’s Jonathan Howard who worked with the Financial Planning Ministry (FPM) to establish the Geislers’ living trust. The university’s new partnership with FPM makes the estate planning process simpler and easier than ever, FPM员工Liz Pimentel说.

“FPM很有帮助，”赫伯说. “如果我们有问题，我们可以和别人谈谈. 乔纳森做这种工作很有天赋. 他温柔而慈爱地走过. He’s also a graduate of 肯考迪娅, so it’s in his heart, too.”

桥称这个过程“非常有条理，很容易做到.” The Geislers are glad to give to 肯考迪娅 because the university “is blooming and a lot of good things are happening,赫伯说.

Having helped 肯考迪娅 become what it is today, their support will help it continue into the future.